In December 2023, I had a lot of questions.  I wondered where Henry’s wife Julia or Julianna originated from. It was time to “ask the wife” in the hope that would give me some lead as to who Henry’s parents really were.  I did some online research, checking out the Odessa Digital Library St. Petersburg collections.  I found that Julia’s village of origin was Shitomir otherwise known as Zhitomir or Zhytomyr, Ukraine.  She was born in Mastchuliv.

I then wondered if any of the Ancestry trees for DNA matches and non-DNA matches alike would give me some clues about Julia’s family.  I was able to get some names of her siblings.

I next asked a cousin if he knew anything, after I caught him up to speed on what I did and didn’t find.  He shared location and ethnic group links.  He figured Henry’s family followed along with some Mennonite friends, since these friends didn’t care to assimilate to what Russia had in mind for them. 

I did recall seeing in one of the Ancestry family trees a note that Henry fled some unnamed country together with his brother, name not mentioned. Supposedly, they were living on the border for a while until Henry was separated from his brother in Denmark or someplace nearby.  I messaged the tree’s owner regarding this notation, asking if she could give me some background on it.  She told me she heard the story from her father-in-law, who happened to be one of my DNA matches.  He heard it from another family relative.  Unfortunately, that family relative wasn’t alive for us to ask for more details.

I was able to contact another Ancestry tree owner who appeared to be related to Julia.  I sent her an Ancestry message and found out she was related to Julia’s mother’s family.  She told me that Henry and Julia were married in Poland and arrived in Neche, North Dakota, within months of being married.

Review of United States censuses for Henry revealed that Henry’s arrival was listed as 1900. An Ancestry tree suggested that Henry arrived in North Dakota first with Julia joining him a couple years later after he sent for her. There was also the comment that it was likely the couple wasn’t married yet to each other and that marriage took place upon arrival. 

I concluded that looking into Julia’s roots was what I call a wild goose chase. Not coming up with any credible documentation regarding Julia and Henry’s marriage resulted in not finding out who Henry’s parents were.